Corona Devotionals

  The word of the  Lord  that came to Zephaniah son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah, during the reign of Josiah  son of Amon  king of Judah...  ~Zephaniah 1:1   Do we have any rock-solid relatives or relations in faith? Zephaniah did.   (Did we catch it?)  He was the great-grandson of Hezekiah , and if we do the hereditary-math, then we can compute that: Zephaniah  was the son of Cushi. Cushi was  the son of Gedaliah. Gedaliah was  the son of Amariah. And  Amariah was  the son of Hezekiah. And so that makes Zephaniah the great-grandson of  Hezekiah .  And--what does that mean for Zephaniah (to be the great-grandson of Hezekiah )? Alot , actually--because Hezekiah had some hefty spiritual credentials.  King Hezekiah  lived a life in faith and service to the Lord.  And that means that (if Zephaniah chose to follow in his great-grandaddy's faith f...

My, my, (my!) how time flies. It seems just yesterday that we noticed a newly crafted nest on our front porch (artificial) tree. And then three blue eggs were suddenly sitting in the nest. But my, my, (my!) how time flies, because then: three tiny naked bodies with beaks began to be seen within the nest, and then (my, my, my) these little guys began to foster fuzzy feathers and my, my, (my!) how time flies---now they barely fit in the nest and their rapidly-growing little robin statures are fully-cloaked with full feather coats. Where does the time go? This robin life cycle has all occurred in only the last month, and yet today it is now time for these (recent!) babies to stand up, step out, and begin the natural progression of beginning to fly. But these members of the robin family are not the only ones that the Lord brings from birth to life...and into living-life (ups and downs both included!) as He has designed and planned-out for them. As His children--this is our progres...

Thud!....   Silence.   Thud!....   Silence.  What was  that, I wondered?   Thunder?  But the skies were clear.   The factory that backs up to our backyard?  ...Not this time. Thud!....   Silence.   There it was again and it was  coming from our backyard.   Wait a minute...I know that sound,  and I know that distance-interval in between those thuds. The  thud  was our middle child, Silas...kicking his soccer ball from about twenty yards out from our backyard goal.  The silence was Silas running to retrieve the kick from the back of the goal net or the side yard, and the next  thud was his next shot on goal.   Thud!....   Silence.   Thud!....   Silence.   Thud!....   Silence.     He stays out there shooting for hours.  He loves shooting a soccer ball.   He always has.  He is seventeen years old, and if...

I did really well today...almost all day.  I've been trying to eat a little healthier, and to cut out a few more sweets and to focus more on meals than (unhealthy) snacking.  And I was doing really well.   But then, for the low, low price of two dollars and twenty nine cents, I fell to temptation. Sweet, salty, vanilla-drizzled temptation in the form of flavored kettle corn. When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone...  ~James 1:13  If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.  ~James 4:17 You would think that if I was going to fall, it would be for a higher dollar-value item, but the sweet vanilla flavored kettle corn for $2.29 is what tempted me out of responsible eating, and what got me into gluttony. Okay, so "gluttony" may be a bit forceful, because I haven't eaten the whole bag... yet .  But I still have a lot of night left, an...